Aurélie Sacchelli, Media365, published on Tuesday, November 26, 2024 at 11:33 p.m.
The International Cycling Union has called on riders to no longer resort to carbon monoxide inhalation, and for the World Anti-Doping Agency to take a position on the subject.
At the start of the week, the International Cycling Union, chaired by Frenchman David Lappartient, held a two-day seminar in Nice. And on this occasion, stakeholders in men's and women's cycling addressed the issue of carbon monoxide inhalation, a method currently authorized, which is used to measure blood volume, but which could also be used to improve performance. . The UCI made a double request, to the riders and to the World Anti-Doping Agency: “The seminar participants were also informed of current knowledge on the effects of repeated inhalation of carbon monoxide (CO) on performance. The UCI clearly asks teams and riders not to resort to repeated inhalation of CO. Only the medical use of a single inhalation of CO in a controlled medical environment could be acceptable. The UCI also officially asks the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to take a position on the use of this method by athletes.”
Pogacar: “It’s not like we’re breathing exhaust”
During the last Tour de France, the media Escape Collective revealed that UAE Emirates and Visma-Lease a Bike, the respective teams of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, used carbon monoxide inhalation. The Slovenian admitted to having used this practice and saw no harm in it: “It’s a test in a high camp to see how you react to altitude. You have to do this test, which lasts two or three minutes. You breathe into a balloon for a minute, then you see the hemoglobin mass, then you have to repeat it two weeks later. But I only did the first part of the test, because the girl who was supposed to come after two weeks didn't come. It's not like we breathe exhaust every day in cars. It's just a pretty simple test to see how you respond to training at altitude. » A method so innocuous as that? Obviously not if we are to believe the UCI's request..
